Robert T. Freeman is a figurative painter known for his bold gestural brushwork, vivid color palette, geometric forms, and abstract approach to his subjects. His monumental canvases reflect personal experiences and probe the complexities of race and politics in America, including the long shadow of slavery and its ties to American white supremacy. When Freeman arrived at the Gardner Museum as an Artist-in-Residence in March 2025, he was no stranger to its halls. A longtime admirer and frequent visitor, he had also served on both the Lighting and Building Committees. But the residency offered something new, a chance to engage with the Museum in a deeper, more sustained way. Over time, he was able to observe and capture how light moved across the architecture, through rooms, and over the works of art, revealing the space in constantly shifting ways.
Freeman spent many mornings seated by the Courtyard, sketching and observing. He was especially drawn to the architecture of the windows that open from the galleries onto the central garden. One work that particularly captivated him was The Omnibus, 1892 by Anders Zorn, located in the Blue Room. Freeman admired Zorn’s painting style and returned to the piece often. Zorn’s brushwork, use of the alla prima technique, painting wet-into-wet for soft blending, and his careful placement of contrasting light and dark values to build form, fascinated him. He deepened his understanding of the painting through a conversation with Lucia Bay, the Gardner’s painting conservator, who spent an afternoon with him exploring the conservation binders and reference materials related to the work.
He spent time in the galleries with archivist Shana McKenna, looking closely at letters and ephemera that Gardner had placed on view in the galleries for the public. During a visit to the reading room, Freeman explored dealer photographs of the architectural elements Gardner had purchased abroad, as well as images taken during the Museum’s construction. He also had access to a rich collection of photographs taken by Thomas Marr and Son documenting Gardner’s Beacon Street home, her summer retreat at Green Hill, and the Museum itself. These ranged from early gallery installations through images taken shortly after her passing. Freeman also read letters from Anders Zorn to Isaballa, along with other correspondence from her friends who wrote to her about Zorn or his work; included a bit of gossip.
In March 2025, the Museum was in the process of preparing an extensive exhibition on Allan Rohan Crite, an artist who, like Freeman, documented and celebrated Boston’s Black community. Several of Crite’s paintings and works on paper were on-site being conserved and prepared for installation. During his residency, Freeman was able to view these materials up close and spoke with artists Johnetta Tinker and Susan Thompson, both of whom had contributed works from their personal collections to the exhibition. A longtime admirer of Crite’s work, Freeman and his wife had attended a lecture he gave at the Museum in 1993, which explored the interaction of global cultures from the Renaissance through the 19th century, including the history of slavery in the Americas and Crite’s own ancestral ties to enslavement in Peru.
Moved by the experience and his deep admiration, Freeman chose to make Crite the focus of his project for the Gardner. Earlier in the year Freeman had been invited to create a new work for the Museum’s Facade public art space for the Fall 2025 suite of exhibitions. In response, he created a tribute to fellow artist Allan Rohan Crite. Freeman portrays the larger-than-life Crite surrounded by figures from Crite’s paintings of Boston. Crite painted these street scenes in the tradition of a griot, a West African storyteller and preserver of culture. Freeman’s portrait honors Crite’s legacy as a storyteller who celebrated the beauty and dignity of his community.
Robert T. Freeman (b. 1946, USA) is a figurative painter known for his bold large-scale works. In 2023, Freeman’s painting, Black Tie (1981), depicting a jubilant social gathering of the Black middle class, was selected to hang in the Massachusetts Governor's office by Maura Healey. Since the January 6, 2020, insurrection at the US Capitol, Freeman has focused on the long shadow of slavery and its ties to American white supremacy. Born in New York City, Freeman spent his childhood between Ghana and Washington D.C., before settling in Boston.
Robert Freeman has been exhibiting work for over 40 years. His paintings are in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; the National Center for African American Artists, Roxbury, MA; Boston Public Library, MA; Brown University, Providence, RI; Boston College, MA; Rollins Museum of Art, Winterpark, FL; Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, NY; Smith College, Northampton, MA; and the DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA. His work has also been featured in exhibitions at Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; and Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA.. Freeman studied at Howard University before earning a BFA in 1971 and an MFA in 1981 from Boston University, where he trained with renowned artists Phillip Guston, Reed Kay, Richard Yarde, and John Wilson. Freeman has taught several institutions, including 27 years as Artist-in-Residence at Noble and Greenough as well as Harvard University, where he lectured from 1986-1992.
Header photograph of Robert T. Freeman by David Leifer, 2025
